JennyMorgan

Mount! Peggy MOUNT!! Mount as in . . . . . . . . oh dear, best step back from the edge!

Just a thought, if a staithe is for unloading rather than long term mooring then will or does that mean that boats wishing to unload will take precedence over boats that just want to moor there? Potentially interesting times ahead!

The tent, well, the BA's own tent at Thorpe obviously gives the okay to that one! The Staithe, when is a staithe not a staithe? As it is already one then I suspect that free mooring is available to all for loading and unloading and that includes people. As for use by the residents, they can and do at Beccles, Rockland, Surlingham and Oulton Broad just to mention four so I suspect that the same will apply to Ranworth, if it really is a parish staithe. An interesting one with the possibilty of an interesting outcome and certainly interesting discussion. P.S. Am glad you survived into 2018!

For me 2017 was a reasonably satisfying but not remarkable year boating wise, for various reasons. However, we gained an eighth grandchild which more than made up for it!

Enjoy! I guarantee that you'll have a great deal of fun! Add a tent to your kit or even go for a camper van & your boundaries become limitless. Paddle power is good too! The freedom of a small boat far outweighs the minor discomforts.

One for Gracie http://www.days-until-christmas.co.uk/exact-time-til-Christmas.htm

I'm not allowed to need or want anyone else! Welcome, Jeremy, if we see Brinks Serenade tucked up in some quiet backwater we shall all know what you are up to. A crossword puzzle and a hot chocolate!!!

Another Broads regular back then was Peggy Mount, what a character! Short in stature, warm in personality & deep in voice. Her idea of a holiday, so it seemed, was to be cook for the week, so long as there was a cooking sherry to hand. Very quiet and unobtrusive, often dressed all in black, my shop opened at 7-30 a.m., she'd quickly nip from the hire boat that she was aboard across to the shop before we were busy. She was pleased to be recognised but equally pleased to be ignored. However, if the shop was otherwise empty she'd chat away in her deep voice, a delightful person whom I was always pleased to have in my shop, I was also something of a fan, Peggy was a really nice woman.

A quick Google shows that my facts about U571 are also in error, see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/774427.stm

U571 was such a travesty of fact that I'm quite certain that it will go down in history as being just that. Coincidentally there is an incredibly interesting book out there written by the American naval commander that captured her. I later came to understand that in his quest for glory he came very near to being court martialed for jeopardizing the whole Enigma program in the run up to D-Day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09kslkg/eric-ernies-home-movies About 46 minutes in.

I well remember the short one of the two, the one with the hairy legs, a regular visitor to the Waveney River Centre for a couple of summers. I first met him when he came marching into the shop and asking about having his toilet pumped out. That simple request quickly developed into high speed, off the cuff repartee between the two of us. Hilarious and not one single swear word. One of the most likable 'stars' that used to visit the Broads back in the 1970s.

Oh no, not milk a bull!?

Like Vaughan I grew up amongst those that had been there. My uncle had been an unwilling guest of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore, my school housemaster had been in Colditz Castle for the duration, an uncle ended up as a well decorated pilot, a close family friend drove diggers in Auschwitz filling up mass graves, I lost an uncle and cousin, both lost at sea and another as a victim of 'friendly fire' when the Hudson that he was flying was brought down. My father volunteered and went to the D-Day beaches on a US flak ship, hopefully to prevent them shooting down one of their own. He also flew in a Flying Fortress on one of the Thousand Bomber Raids for the same reason, he was in the Royal Observer-Corps. I could go on but I'm sure that you get my drift, we mustn't forget, it's as simple as that. Dunkirk 2017 will help, I'm sure. Vaughan, re Colditz, the Taverham teacher's name was Mr Long, Royal Norfolks. I only found out when a fellow pupil was loudly and continually waxing lyrical about Douglas Bader as being a hero. Obviously hit a raw nerve as Mr Long finally commented, relating to Bader's POW activities, he explained to those of us on his table just how he knew, the only time I ever heard him mention his wartime activities. Apparently Bader was rather foolhardy and put others and their escape projects at risk.

I'm moored on Oulton Broad and when it really does get bad then it does it in style. I have 2 to 3 foot waves, trough to crest, running up my slipway!

I might not agree entirely with Marsh's latest posting but in principle he does have a point. Absolute accuracy is probably unachievable now so why make another Dunkirk film? Mrs Miniver was undeniably a feel good propaganda film. The John Mills one was good, and probably reasonably accurate, but it lacked the biting atmosphere and raw emotion of the 2017 offering. At the end of which I was choked up, I really was and far more aware of what those that were involved must have felt, the terror and desperation was surely all pervading and that is what the film portrayed so effectively. In my sincere opinion it is an effective tribute to those that were there. Each to their own, but I believe that it needs watching.

Most permanent moorings are safe but many casual ones need an open eye being kept on them. Fenders need to be adjusted. Sometimes long poles can be pushed into the bottom of the river in order to stop the chine of your boat going over the top of the jetty or quay heading. My own personal mooring is on the East shore meaning that I'm prone to the prevailing Westerlies and gales. I have a chain and substantial weight laid on the bottom so if it does blow up and the tide goes into flood mode then I am able to pick up the chain and pull off the shore and lay head to wind. If it really gets really nasty then I have been known moor to the windward shore. There is no one size fit all answer to this one, apart from preventing your boat snagging on a pile or riding over the jetty capping. A nice sheltered mooring is a godsend but even that can be prone to the delights of a flood tide.

Back to the original question, and in all seriousness, if I were on a lee shore, the shore to which the wind is blowing, then I wouldn't be there, at least not in a gale nor in flood conditions, neither of which are generally unpredictable. In a nutshell I would have moved long before tragedy struck.

Lots of little old ladies will be glad to know that! I suspect that they'd be even happier if it were available in 'squats'.

Vaughan, you really do need to watch the film. I have more than a sneaking suspicion that despite the plastic fenders you will be impressed. Definitely no rose tinted glasses involved.

So long as it's not a little Red Barrel! Red Barrel, arghhhhh, London has imposed some pretty awful exports on to Norfolk & Suffolk over the years & that stuff must top them all!

Tea! Bah humbug, that's a cissies' drink, a large tot of Woods more like.

Have no fear, Maurice Minor is near. Nyx will appear over the Hickling horizon, tots of rum at the ready.

. . . . . . and hope that someone sees it before it blows out!

Go back to bed! It's just a nightmare.